Jasmine Pecan Shortbread by A Quarter to Tea- Doesn’t this sound so interesting? I love pecans. I put pecans in my shortbread. Yes, I make shortbread and yes it is absolutely incredible shortbread. I put pecans in it to add that crunch and my other half and I go nuts (no pun intended) over it. But, my shortbread is laden with butter. A Quarter to Tea’s “shortbread”, though? Not so much. What better way to get my cravings in than with this? I have been so excited to try this blend and I think today is the perfect day to do so.

I steeped this blend for four minutes with hot water. I used half of a sample bag in my 12oz mug. Once steeped I could smell sweet jasmine, the vegetal green tea, cookies, and the nutty pecans. The smell was very realistic! My first thought when I tasted it is that I could taste the green tea, which I love. I love green tea so I don’t mind when it’s flavor is strong. I think that the second part I tasted was the floral jasmine followed by nutty pecans and finished with slight sweet cookie and vanilla flavor just at the very end. I’m actually really digging this blend, wow. It is good! I’m sipping on it as I write this and the more I drink the more I can taste pecan shortbread freckled with jasmine. The aroma of sweet vanilla and jasmine is definitely there as well, and that, coupled with the taste of pecan cookies, makes for a very happy “me”.

You got to try this one, people! Yeah, i’m probably going to be ordering more. YUM! I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, A Quarter to Tea is just plain winning.

Hi, my name is Sophia. I am a first time mother to a beautiful little girl who will be 1 in July 2017. I spend my days at home with her and when I get a minute to myself, I usually spend that time making, drinking, or researching tea! My love for loose leaf tea is relatively new. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my mother (a tea addict herself) brought me to DAVIDsTEA. I enjoyed a cup of their Coconut Cream Pie Oolong and was instantly hooked! Since then, my addiction has grown to fill entire cabinets, and shows no sign of stopping.
I am the creator of the Facebook group CommuniTEA where we have one big tea discussion. It is a great group for those new to the tea-world. I feel strongly about spreading the joy of loose leaf tea. I like making instructional videos and helping those that are new to the art of tea-making so that they, too, can share in the happiness that tea brings. I am excited to see where this hobby takes me and I will continue to spread the joy!

I drank three cups of this before I wrote this review because I read that there were chocolate/cocoa nibs in here — but I could never find them. I’ve never given up on locating Waldo, so I don’t know why I’d quit on this tea.

But friends, despite the delicious chocolate smell in the dry leaf, I cannot pinpoint any chocolate flavoring in this tea.

Which is not to say the tea is bad. It’s a lovely Assam-y bread-y malt-y mix. A dark blend of sultry Eastern European men telling fortunes and learning to box. Like, if the Winter Soldier were a tea, this might be the one.

The caffeine content is no joke. I could actually feel my brain rousing itself. “AHA. THE DAY. GOT IT. ON IT NOW.”

It’s weird that wake-up juice comes from natural sources like tea leaves. Doesn’t caffeine seem like something that would have come from a lab, like some kind of drug? You could imagine some sort of mad scientist raging “LIKE GARFIELD, I HATE MONDAYS. I MUST IMPROVE MY LOT.” And storming around, lab coat flapping behind his frenzied, sweaty body, as he crafted a glowing substance that looks a lot like alien pee and/or Mountain Dew.

Nope? Just me?

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Black Tea

Description

If you are looking for a wake-me-up, perk-me-up cup in the morning, that’s off the beaten path of coffee, look no further. This strong black tea has the smoothness of chocolate, and the boldness of roasted cocoa beans. Doctor it as you would a cup of coffee, with milk and sugar to start off your day!

"Hey, everybody! I'm Leah, a graphic designer from Pennsylvania, United States. I live with my husband and rescue mutt in a house with colorful walls. I love fonts, colors, animals, flowers, novels, illustration, geeking out, and -- obviously! -- tea. I've only been heavily into tea for about a year, but I've found I tend to prefer loose blended black dessert teas. I normally drink them hot western style without anything added; if I add in some vanilla almond milk or honey, I promise I'll mention it! When I'm not blogging here, I'm blogging at leahlucci.com/starling or posting to Instagram (super_starling), so come say hi!"

French Toast Tea. I’ve had a few. The ones I have tried I have adored. More than one of the French Toast flavored teas have been from 52 Teas whom I also adore. Today I want to tell you about Coconut French Toast with Cardamom Maple Syrup from 52 Teas.

The name in itself is a thinker. Coconut French Toast with Cardamom Maple Syrup. My dyslexic brain converted the name to Coconut French Toast Cardamom with Maple Syrup. Either would have worked, I suppose. But I guess the Maple Syrup was Cardamom Flavored and not necessarily the French Toast.

Regardless – this was wonderful. And it didn’t stay in my stash for long. Just a few short days, actually.

The black tea base was on the stronger side. There was a pretty spot-on liking to a French Toast flavor that is for sure. The Cardamom was present and pleasing. The Maple Syrup sweetness was subtle but true. The coconut added to the overall sweetness but also provided a separate and stand alone sweetness standing beside the sweetness of the Maple Syrup flavor. There is even a speck of cinnamon to top things off!

52 Teas has SURELY done it again with this wonderfully flavored black tea!

Co-Founder/Co-Creator of Sororitea Sisters at Sororitea Sisters
Jennifer (TeaEqualsBliss) is in her upper 30s and lives in the eastern snowbelt area of the US with her husband, 3 dogs, and cat (however the number of furkids can change at anytime as she LOVES providing a forever home for many shelter animals. Her several interests include music, movies, veganism, sports, traveling, collecting Baseball Cards and Unicorns, Radio, Computers, Crafting, and of course…TEA. She started drinking tea at the tender age of 3 thanks to her Grandmother and her love for tea has gotten stronger with each year! In addition to being a co-founder/co-creator of Sororitea Sisters - her main site is MyBlissfulJourney.com. Find out more about Jennifer on MyBlissfulJourney.com.

In theory, Spring is upon us. As the weather heats up, it is time to say goodbye to heavier winter teas and say hello or perhaps Aloha to lighter spring teas. So what is a lighter spring tea?

Well for me fruity greens come to mind. They are lighter in color and lighter in flavor. And Harlow’s Say Aloha with its strawberries and pineapple and other fruits sounds like a spring tea to me.

One misstep I think they took with this tea was using both a hojicha base and hibiscus. Both are such strong ingredients that they wrestle to take center stage, drowning out the fruity flavors in the process. Personally I think the hojicha base would have provided enough of a foundation to give this tea body and depth while allowing the other ingredients to play a bigger role.

As it is now, there is a roastiness from the green tea, a tartness from the hibiscus, and then a generic fruity sweetness from all the various fruits here. Plus, since candied fruit was used, the sweetness is strong, making for another contender in the wrestling match. These components are making war, when they should be blending harmoniously.

Hey there! My name is Rachel. I’m a twenty-something from Toronto, Ontario, Canada who loves dogs and has a bit of an obsession with tea. As a child I hated the stuff since all I ever knew was Red Rose (no offense to Red Rose). However, a few years ago that all changed. I was on a diet and desperate for new flavors without adding calories and that’s when I turned to tea. I started off by going to DAVIDsTEA and Teavana for all their dessert-inspired flavors, and since I didn’t know any better, I bought 100 grams each of about twenty-something different teas. This was okay for the teas I liked but for those I didn’t I needed to find some way of getting rid of them.
Enter Steepster.com. This is where I met some incredible tea friends, discovered tea swaps, and learned of so many amazing tea companies. My desire to try all the teas grew and since joining three years ago I have tried over a thousand different teas. I have learned what ingredients I love and I have learned what flavors I don’t like. I determined my go-to brewing method is Western-style with no added milk or sweeteners, though I also enjoy cold brewing, iced teas, teapops, lattes, and smoothies. I have yet to brew gong-fu style but I hope to do so just as soon as I get the proper teaware to do it.
About a year ago, I actually stopped drinking tea but as my stash of over 200 teas started aging I decided I needed to respark my interest. I chose to take a 365 days of tea challenge on Instagram in which I post a new tea picture every day. So far it has been rather successful as I find myself drinking (and buying) more and more tea each day. Plus it enabled CuppaGeek to find me and invite me here to SororiTea Sisters.

I really like carrot cake and I really like carrots in tea. I think they lend a natural sweetness and a bit of a vegetal flair that compliments a lot of blends very nicely. I have had a lot of luck with A Quarter to Tea’s blends lately. I am really in love with this company. They ship fast and they just do a fantastic job with the teas. You can tell a lot of care has been given to the blends and it really shows in the bright and rich flavors.

I only recently found out about genmaicha green tea. It is (usually) sencha green tea along with rice/popped rice. It gives the green tea a starchy and toasted taste. On its own its plain, in my opinion. However, flavored genmaicha is where it’s at. The toasted flavor of the popped rice accents a lot of different flavor combinations really, really well.

I was excited for the frosted carrot cake genmaicha. A little hesitant, though. Some companies tend to over-spice carrot cake blends. Sometimes its just too spicy for me. If you’ve read my other reviews you will know that I really don’t like stuff that’s spicy. Anyways, back to frosted carrot cake. Um, YUM! Yes, yes, I am in love with yet another tea from A Quarter to Tea. I swear I am drinking liquid carrot cake with a vanilla buttercream. The spices are not too strong and do not overpower that sweet and vegetal taste of the carrots, but they actually accent it well along with a subtle cake flavor. Then the flavor of a yummy vanilla frosting comes in at the end. Another win, people.

Hi, my name is Sophia. I am a first time mother to a beautiful little girl who will be 1 in July 2017. I spend my days at home with her and when I get a minute to myself, I usually spend that time making, drinking, or researching tea! My love for loose leaf tea is relatively new. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my mother (a tea addict herself) brought me to DAVIDsTEA. I enjoyed a cup of their Coconut Cream Pie Oolong and was instantly hooked! Since then, my addiction has grown to fill entire cabinets, and shows no sign of stopping.
I am the creator of the Facebook group CommuniTEA where we have one big tea discussion. It is a great group for those new to the tea-world. I feel strongly about spreading the joy of loose leaf tea. I like making instructional videos and helping those that are new to the art of tea-making so that they, too, can share in the happiness that tea brings. I am excited to see where this hobby takes me and I will continue to spread the joy!